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Wednesday, August 24, 2016

A powerful 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck Myanmar (Burma) at 5:04 p.m. local standard time
on Wednesday including Bagan, Salay, Mrauk U and Sagaing. According to the government report in midnight, 230 religious monuments were affected all over the country and three people were dead. Among them, 185 pagodas and temples are from Bagan, including the famous temples like Htilominlo Pahto, Lakananda Pagoda, Arnanda temple, Dhammayangyi Pahto, Shwe Sandaw Pagoda, Pyathada Paya, Sulamani Pahto, Gubyaukgyi etc. Now, visitors are prohibited to visit the affected temples and clearing the mess with the assistant of the military. Ministry of Cultural and UNESCO are now in Bagan.

Mrauk U or Arrakan (city of Arrakan), in the first plan the
Portuguese settlement of Daingri-pet.

In 1433, King Min Saw Mon established Mrauk U as the capital
of the last unified Arakanese Kingdom. The city eventually reached a size of
160,000 in the early seventeenth century. Mrauk U served as the capital of the
Mrauk U kingdom and its 49 kings till the conquest of the kingdom by the
Burmese Konbaung Dynasty in 1784.

Trading City

Due to its proximity to the Bay of Bengal, Mrauk U developed
into an important regional trade hub, acting as both a back door to the Burmese
hinterland and also as an important port along the eastern shore of the Bay of
Bengal. It became a transit point for goods such as rice, ivory, elephants tree
sap and deer hide from Ava in Burma and of cotton, slaves, horses, cowrie,
spices and textiles from Bengal, India, Persia and Arabia. Alongside Pegu (now Bago) and later Syriam (now Thanlyin), it was one of the most
important ports in Burma till the eighteenth century.

The city also traded with non-Asian powers such as Portugal
and then the Dutch East India Company of the Netherlands. The Dutch East India
Company (VOC) established trading relations with the Arakanese in 1608 after
the Portuguese fell in favour due to the lack of loyalty of Portuguese
mercenaries, such Filipe de Brito e Nicote in the service of the Arakanese
king. The VOC established a permanent factory in Mrauk U in 1635 and operated
in Arakan till 1665.

At its zenith, Mrauk U was the centre of a kingdom which
stretched from the shores of the Ganges river to the western reaches of the
Ayeyarwaddy River. According to popular Arakanese legend, there were 12 cities
of the Ganges’ which constitute roughly half of modern day Bangladesh which
were governed by Mrauk U, including Dhaka and Chittagong. During that period,
its kings minted coins inscribed in Arakanese, Kufic and Bengali.

Much of Mrauk U’s historical description is drawn from the
writing of Friar Sebastian Manruque, a Portuguese Augustinian monk who resided
in Mrauk U from 1630 to 1635.

Get In

By Boat

The journey through the backwaters and then up the river is
a wonderful trip (contemplative and delightful). In Nov 2011 there were two
large ferries running from Sittwe to Mrauk U, the ex-government boat (now privatized)
and the Aung Kyan Moe double decker boat (on both tourists 10 USD, 7 hours and
an Express boat (20 USD, 3 hours). You will almost certainly be met at Sittwe
airport by a tout selling private boats/ places on private boats (2-5 passenger
20 USD per person, 6 hours, one way), which may be useful if you want to go
that afternoon, as you save a night in Sittwe.

If taking a private boat it is best to book the one way trip
only, and arrange your return from Mrauk U. There is a guy whose card reads “Environmental
Decorator” among other things selling boat places there, and he grouped all of
his passengers who had booked (and paid for) a private return into a single
boat. The best rule of thumb is to hand over your money only when you see and
are satisfied with the boat. Private boats will typically have coffee and tea,
and sometimes water for passengers, so bring your own food as the journey is
about 5 hours.

By Road

Busses leave for Sittwe and Yangon every morning but foreign
independent travelers are not permitted to travel to Mrauk U overland. Ref; The Travellers